The washing of splashes of a chemical product in an eye is a problem which arises continually in laboratories and factories. This problem is still poorly resolved. Specifically, the quality and effectiveness of the washing depend much on the swiftness of intervention after the injury is sustained and the effectiveness of the washing solution employed. Though great progress has been made in the quality of washing solutions, the hardware which enables them to be implemented still remains a brake on obtaining an effective result.
Furthermore, it is necessary, precisely in the context of swift intervention, typically within a timescale of less than one minute, that the injured person himself be able, alone, to wash his affected eye with the appropriate product.
Several devices usable for washing an eye that has been splashed by chemical products are known today. These devices can take the form of a (sterilized) glass flask connected up to tubing terminating in an eye cup. Plastic pouches to which is connected tubing terminating in an eye cup also exist. There also exist plastic bottles filled and closed on line; sterilization is carried out in an aseptic manner and the opening system is obtained by rotation.
These systems exhibit numerous drawbacks or inadequacies as regards their use. For the glass flask, the risk of breakage renders the use thereof problematic; furthermore, they are only usable in a wall mount, and the problem then arises of their going out of date after a duration of six months starting from their installation in a wall mount, as well as the problem of the cleanliness of the eye cup which remains in the open air. The problems posed by plastic pouches are similar. As far as plastic bottles filled and closed on line are concerned, they are not sterilizable in an air/steam autoclave; moreover, the opening process is too lengthy.
Document FR 2 682 036 in the name of the Applicant describes an individual portable device for eye bath, in which the edge of an opening of a reservoir is shaped in a non-planar curvilinear manner, approximating a saddle, to form an eye cup. This device has been designed in view of the constraints set out above and, from this point of view, is entirely satisfactory in use.
However, this known device has been made with a reservoir of small capacity (typically around 50 ml): the small volume of liquid available requires that the eye be washed very swiftly (a few seconds) after the injury is sustained. If one wishes to lengthen the intervention timescale (for example of the order of a minute), it is necessary to employ a much bigger volume of liquid (for example of the order of 500 ml), this involving a much larger reservoir although its opening forming the eye cup should retain the same dimensions. Such a device cannot be manufactured under economic conditions in very large batches from a material suitable for withstanding an air/steam autoclave sterilization process and this device must be manufactured by moulding, implementing particular moulding techniques, which are slow and expensive. The manufacture of these devices cannot therefore be undertaken with all the desirable flexibility in terms of diversification of models of various capacities, nor above all under desirable economic conditions for production in very large batches.
According in particular to documents FR 2 682 873, FR 1 448 427, DE 30 35 211, DE 25 40 914, eye bath devices are known which consist of several elements with in particular a receptacle with narrow neck forming a reservoir for a sterile eye bath liquid and a fitted eye cup furnished with interlocking means comprising a double-walled sleeve with U-shape section suitable for overlapping the rim of the neck while tightly clamping the latter; the neck and at least one wall of the sleeve are equipped with complementary reliefs which ensure axial retention of the eye cup on the neck and leaktightness of the assembly.
However, these known devices are intended to undergo chemical sterilization processes (for example by means of ethylene oxide) or sterilization with gamma rays at ambient temperature. On the other hand, they are not appropriate for withstanding a heat sterilization process (at temperatures of the order of 110 to more than 120° C.) with the assurance of preserving the leaktightness of the assembly of the eye cup to the neck of the receptacle if said receptacle and said eye cup are made of synthetic materials having different thermal behaviours.
Now, the search for manufacturing conditions that are ever more favourable both as regards costs and as regards the products available on the market are today leading precisely to envisaging the production of eye bath devices of said type in which the receptacle and the eye cup are made of thermally incompatible synthetics, but which must be suitable for withstanding a sterilization process carried out thermally, by autoclaving of the air/steam type, while preserving the leaktightness of the assembly of the eye cup to the neck of the receptacle.